US and Israel ‘hoped to install Ahmadinejad as Iran’s leader’ (opens in new tab)

Airstrike at the start of the war was aimed at freeing populist ex-president from house arrest, US newspaper claimsMiddle East crisis – live updatesFresh questions have been raised over the US and Israeli effort to depose the Iranian regime after it was claimed that Israel wanted to put the populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power.Ahmadinejad’s turbulent presidency from 2005 to 2013 was marked by incendiary attacks on Israel but he recast himself as a critic of the regime and champion of the poo...